Blog - Opinion

The Jacoby Consulting Group Blog

Welcome to the Jacoby Consulting Group blog.
You will immediately notice that this blog covers a wide range of themes - in fact, whatever takes my fancy or whatever I feel strongly about that is current or topical.
Although themes may relate to business, corporate or organisational issues (i.e. the core talents of JCG), they also cover issues on which JCG also feels warranted to comment, such as social issues, my books, other peoples' books and so on.
You need to know that comments are moderated - not to stifle disagreement - but rather to eliminate obnoxious or incendiary comments.
If a reader wishes to pursue any specific theme in more detail, specifically in relation to corporate, business or organisational issues, or in relation to my books, then the reader is invited to send an off-line email with a request. A prompt response is promised.
I hope you enjoy this blog - sometimes informed, sometimes amused and sometimes empassioned. Welcome and enjoy.
JJJ

31 March 2014

Discipline within organisations

I think that the issue of discipline and its contribution to culture and organisational performance rests with the definition of 'discipline'. Furthermore, my observations suggest that 'poor discipline' is commonly not uniform across the organisation.For example, if a particular procedure or process is stupid, illogical or counter-productive, and if people don't comply with it, it might still be interpreted as poor discipline. In this instance, discipline and the level of its compliance, are determined by the robustness of the issue to be complied with in the minds of the people who must comply with a directive. If everything else in the organisation makes sense, then there is discipline everywhere, except where it doesn't make sense.Using the same logic, lack of discipline in leaders' direction may be caused by poor leadership. Just because a person is 'ill-disciplined', doesn't mean that the person doesn't have the organisation's best interest at heart. It may be caused by poor direction (or understanding of the people that need to comply) or poor understanding of the issue (i.e. the logic of the direction) by the people who need to comply. Discipline is necessarily contextual. If you don't appreciate the context and the people within it, then there is a good chance that imposed discipline may not achieve the outcome desired.All of the above occurs within an organisation's cultural reality. Among other attributes elsewhere discussed, an organisation's approach and reaction to discipline forms and defines its cultures.